Tips for remote troubleshooting

[TubsAlwaysWins]

Does anyone have any tips for remotely troubleshooting a computer? One of the main things im after is something like a small linux ISO that can be downloaded by a client (or whatever you like to call the end user) that will alow a live boot for me to remote into, and Im not super up to date or familiar with Linux ISOs. If anyone has any they like please let me know, Thanks (I have access to GoToAssist Expert, and any of the free remote software available)

 

 

If anyone wants to get more involved, I built my Uncle and his family a PC a year or two ago as an upgrade from their probably 8 year old desktop. A week or two ago I got a call from my cousin and my uncle because it wouldn't boot into Windows, and instead just went straight into the BIOS. I said I would get back to him if I thought of any solutions to the problem. I texted my uncle today and asked if he wanted me to look at it, and he said one day it just fixed itself. Maybe an hour after I texted him it went back to the same issue and some prompt about a Disk Read Error Occured. 

 

Im not sure whether to hope for a hardware or software issue, as I am a hardware person but that is difficult when you live 11 hours away from them. Any thoughts as to what it would be and why it magically fixed itself one day? It has 2 hard drives (a SSD for speed and a HDD for storage) that are both detected just fine. From the BIOS pictures ive gotten, the RAM is also being detected just fine (2x4GB of Kinngston RAM). I dont remember the exact hardware, but it has an Asus Motherboard and a AMD A10-7850K.

 

tl;dr - uncles computer broke, fixed itself magically, and broke again with the same issue and read Disk Read Error Occured.

[Fluvous]

Is it possible that one of the drive connectors have loosened? I could understand that something like a loose cable could cause for a system to completely stop working, and then soon after (Perhaps someone bumps the computer), the cable bends the right way and connects. Personally, I had a Disk Read Error a while back, and the sata port on the mother board must just have been bad. I moved it to the next sata port and it worked fine.

[TubsAlwaysWins]

1 minute ago, Fluvous said:

Is it possible that one of the drive connectors have loosened? I could understand that something like a loose cable could cause for a system to completely stop working, and then soon after (Perhaps someone bumps the computer), the cable bends the right way and connects. Personally, I had a Disk Read Error a while back, and the sata port on the mother board must just have been bad. I moved it to the next sata port and it worked fine.

I had him move one of the sata connectors on the motherboard when he first contacted me about the issue. I wonder if its the end attached to the drive...

[Fluvous]

1 minute ago, TubsAlwaysWins said:

I had him move one of the sata connectors on the motherboard when he first contacted me about the issue. I wonder if its the end attached to the drive...

That could be. Whenever I have friends that ask for computer help from a long distance, I have them video chat with me. Maybe that's the best way to remotely troubleshoot here 

[TubsAlwaysWins]

Just now, Fluvous said:

That could be. Whenever I have friends that ask for computer help from a long distance, I have them video chat with me. Maybe that's the best way to remotely troubleshoot here 

Thats probably what Ill do if theres time haha. I know I get ahead of myself though and ill be throwing out technical terms... Still on my list of things to work on

[Fluvous]

9 minutes ago, TubsAlwaysWins said:

I know I get ahead of myself though and ill be throwing out technical terms... Still on my list of things to work on

Haha me too. When I build PC's for/with my friends I try to narrow my vocab to three words; Pins, wires, and connectors. Good luck

[TubsAlwaysWins]

Just now, Fluvous said:

Haha me too. When I build PC's for/with my friends I try to narrow my vocab to three words; Pins, wires, and connectors. Good luck

I was just riding on getting reliable known brands haha. Like if anything my desktop should be having the issues since its a nutcase down there (2 SSDs in RAID 0, a GTX 1060 and a R9 270x, and a 4.7Ghz OC on a 3.5Ghz processor)

 

Thanks though. Ill try and keep updates going if I remember